The skin, being one of the most important organs of the body, depends for its health and well-being on the normal functioning of the whole of the system.The Nature Cure contention that health is indivisible applies especially to the skin, and needs emphasizing particularly in this connection because so many people have failed to appreciate it. In the back of their minds, and as a result of mistaken ideas, they hold fast to the notion that the skin is only the covering of the body and bears little relationship to the internal environment. At the cost of constant repetition we must eradicate this fallacious idea, or else we shall completely fail to make clear the Nature Cure interpretation of skin diseases.A healthy skin can easily be recognized. It is of good appearance, showing no blemishes at all, and of uniform colour. Except where hardened by the pressure of an occupation it is soft, almost velvety, and just moist enough to be pleasantly smooth. It is difficult to describe in words the texture of a healthy skin; it is easily recognized by pressure of the fingers. An important sign of a healthy skin is its elasticity or free movement. It can be picked up and rolled under fingers, and shows a healthy pink reaction when this is done.This flexibility or easy movement of the skin is particularly important in relation to its circulation. In the skin itself and just under it there is a supply of connective tissues, and it is through these tissues that the lymph circulation is distributed. Now the lymph is related to the inter-cellular fluid of the body, which is about three and a half times as great in volume as the whole of the blood in the body. This inter-cellular fluid has sometimes been called the “sea-water,” of the body because in it we find a similar chemical make-up to that of the sea, containing as it does, sodium, calcium, potassium and magnesium. It is in this great fluid medium that the cells live, so we must consider it to be of even greater immediate importance than the blood itself.Apart from the chemical make-up and alkalinisation of this fluid-which is, of course, directly affected by the waste products of cell activity and normal defective elimination- the important mechanical factor in this fluid is its constant movement. Behind the blood circulation we have, as we know, the force of the heart pump, but there is no such arrangement for the inter-cellular fluid. Yet it is moving all the time-in certain circumstances, more so than in others-and this movement holds the secret of life and death, because any failure means a cessation of the life-force, energy or call it what you will.A healthy skin – one that moves freely over the underlying parts-plays a very important part in the dynamic quality of this life-giving and life-sustaining fluid. It keeps up on the periphery of the body a constant stimulation of the “sea-water” of the system, and thus preserves the alkaline balance of the tissues and prevents areas from being congested with the toxins of cell life.
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